Fig. 1: Biological inspiration for active pigment dispersal in buildings.

a, b Reversible chromatophore activation in male Antarctic Krill when unexposed (a) and exposed to light (b) as a mechanism for dynamic solar shading. c Localized chromatophore coverage of the abdominal segments in Krill. d, e Schematic comparing the activation pathways for both biological chromatophore clusters in Krill (d) and synthetic chromatophore clusters in buildings (e), to control the ingress of solar radiation through the skin of Krill (d) and facade of buildings (e). f, g Exploded perspectival cross-section showing both the contracted (top) and expanded (bottom) state of a single chromatophore in both Krill (f) and synthetic device (g). h Images comparing complete chromatophore expansion and contraction sequence in both Krill (top) and synthetic device (bottom). Top scale bar is 100 μm. Bottom scale bar is 2 cm. (i) Images comparing complete expansion and contraction sequence for a cluster of chromatophores in both Krill (top) and synthetic device (bottom). Top scale bar is 1 mm. Bottom scale bar is 5 cm. Bottom image is stitched from four images of a 4 × 3 pixel array. j Render showing dynamic and localized synthetic chromatophore activation within a building facade, where multiple activation states (i, ii, iii) and hyper-local control (iv) can be achieved. All images of Antarctic Krill in a-d, h-i were provided by Lutz Auerswald.